"Water Changes"

[Rudmin]

I'm always seeing people posting about a weekly water change of 25-50%. What exactly do you do for a water change? Is it okay to replace your tank water with tap water?

[Reddog80p]

Water Change - Gravel vaccum debris/fish waste off the bottom of your tank and replace the removed water with dechlorinated tap water that matches your tanks running temperature. 25 - 50% weekly is pretty standard unless your tank needs special care (fry,sensitive fish,medicating tank,overfeeding,cycling,etc.)

[ChiaJesus]

Yup, what Reddog said. I do a 10-20% water change in my tanks once a week and a 50% water change once a month.

[Po.Verse]

Yup, what Reddog said. I do a 10-20% water change in my tanks once a week and a 50% water change once a month.

Same here

[Draal5]

That depends on which of my tanks iam doing for my 90 discus tank I do around 30% daily. my grow out tanks 50% every other day my 10g tanks 20% 2 X a week

[Zenz]

Wow Draal! Do your hands look like prunes? :lol:

[DrNo]

You can use tap water, but make sure you use a tap-water dechlorinator like Prime or NovAqua+, etc.

[Po.Verse]

Def use prime.


For my 75, since my Flowerhorn is real sensitive, I have a big rubbermade tote, and I use the garden hose, and fill it, use prime and let it warm up a little.

[NickD]

One of the main reasons for doing the weekly water changes in a cycled tank is to remove the nitrates which build up and which are harmful to the fish in large quantities. Nitrates are produced as the fish waste and leftover foods are consumed/broken down by the benficial bacteria. If you haven't already done so, I recommend you read up on "the cycle". Check out the following thread.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81388

As for using tap water: That's what most of us use. As the others have stated, make sure it's treated with a dechlorinator such as Prime.

I do about 20 - 25% changes weekly.

[SchizotypalVamp]

35% weekly on my 10
50% daily on my three gallon-it's next to the next, and it takes 5 minutes.

[Draal5]

Wow Draal! Do your hands look like prunes? :lol:

No but I do feel like the who makes the donuts some times.( I have 11 tanks with 3 more to setup :rant2: dam you petco and your $1 per gallon sale)

pythons are a wonderful thing

[Rudmin]

So, would I use a gravel vac on my sand substrate? I think I have sand substrate...

[lovejonesx]

I try really hard to do a water change every week. Sometimes I have to stop what is going on in my weekend & make it a scheduled thing at a scheduled time, so that it will be done,...& THAT (weekly) is what I shoot for.

I agree with what's been already listed as to what a "water change" is & involves.

Now as far as how much I take from the tank, i'd be irresponsible to tell you to take 50% out of every tank & with all fish. I have frontosa that are VERY sensitive to "massive" water changes & their tanks are solidly on the 20 % side of the equation (or even less than that, sometimes more than once a week.)

Some fish respond very badly to 50 % water changes.

gjx

[lovejonesx]

pythons are a wonderful thing


Just thought that THIS beared repeating!!

PYTHONS ARE A WONDERFUL THING!!:headbang2:




:grinyes:

[jpappy789]

So, would I use a gravel vac on my sand substrate? I think I have sand substrate...
Yep. Just hover the vac over the sand to pick up poo, uneaten food, etc.

[The Zigman]

I do a 30-35 gal w/c every day now on my 125...

and I just top off the others for now..

[stezatois]

Yep what they said, I average about 25% weekly water change, with gravel vac, and always use a declor. I use an aqualife one that i find pretty good. I can smell the chlorine in my water when im just running the tap.

[stezatois]

So, would I use a gravel vac on my sand substrate? I think I have sand substrate...


Your best bet is to stir up the top layers of sand and then vac, Just not too much to make that just added cloud lol. this way your not sucking out half your substrate. I do this in my fry tank and my community. The other tank with sand has gravel on top.

[wildman117]

i do a 50% daily changes on my tanks but as i only have a 55, 2x20s and a 5 i find it relaxing hence why i do them everynight

[bushwhacker]

i do 30 to 50% every 2 weeks top it off when it gets a little down , mya tap water is clear no ammonia no clorine, or if there is i cant find any

[Iceeeyyyy]

I do 50% changes every other day and monthly canister cleanings :)

[Star_Rider]

I do 50% water changes on all my tanks weekly..my discus tanks 2Xweekly
my fry tanks every other day.

it is rare to find fish that suffer from large water changes ..unless the tds is high in the tanks. messy fish can adapt to high tds and have issues with large water changes.
best to get them on a schedule soon. tds can build up quickly in a tank with small water changes.(remember it is cumulative)

[nomadofthehills]

I do 50-95% water changes on most of my tanks weekly. My fish eat DURING water changes. They do not get stressed. I have two 55s, a 29, and several 10s.

[OldMan47]

Unlike what most people have been saying, I average about 20% changes per week but all tanks are not the same. My goodeids and cory tanks do best with lots of small changes rather than large changes so that is what they get. The cories get lots of small water changes with rain water when I can get it or with part RO and part tap water when it's not raining. The rain water changes of 15 to 20% happen daily if it keeps raining. I do not warm up the rain water. The idea is to simulate a rainy season in their natural habitat and the rain water goes in as soon as I collect it and let the bit of dust and silt settle for a few minutes. My livebearer tanks get larger changes with tap water. The 20% I stated at the beginning of this post is only an average, each tank gets what it needs for the fish that are in the tank.

[NeonFlux]

50% Water changes weekly. Python rules wc's. :) I acclimate my fish with dechlorinated water with near same temperature as the tank, very slowly refilling to 50% of new water for 30 minutes;takes time but it really helps out and no crash later.

[jaylin]

Depends on the bioload in a tank and what fish I have in there, but I've found with most fish that more and more often is better. Sure, you can get away with 20% weekly changes with many tanks, but in most cases the tank looks better and the fish seem healthier with more than that. I had an african cichlid tank that I changed 50% of the water twice a week and did a big 80% change on monthly. Never crashed the tank and those fish were really healthy. I couldn't get them to stop breeding lol.

[zerosum]

i do 40% bi-weekly on my 30 gal and 30% weekly on my 10 gal, these daily changers must not have plants

[OldMan47]

More often is better in some cases as Jaylin stated but in my case I keep fish that do best with frequent small changes. Once I have done the research on particular fish's needs, the general rules go out the window and I do what my fish need. More is not always better unless you have not yet researched the fine points or are not keeping species only tanks that can be adjusted without harming other fish. As a general rule more water changes are better but some fish just cannot take it. I will continue to be stubborn about not changing too much too often on those fish.

[jaylin]

More is not always better ...

That's why I said "I've found with most fish that .." and not "what I find is... with all fish"

Sorry, but it bugs me when someone corrects me to say what I just said.

And zerosum, I find a lot of my plants do better with frequent water changes too. I figure it's a micronutrient thing. But your right about one thing, I didn't have any plants in the African tank, which is part of the reason why I did such large and frequent water changes. Well, that and cichlids are messy and these guys were forever having babies so ...